Smartphone cancer screenings début in regional pilot

Low-income women in San Diego and Tijuana will soon be able receive cervical cancer diagnostic services via smartphone.

The pilot program will happen thanks to a $300,000 first place award granted in May by the Vodafone America Foundation to a San Diego and Tijuana based team of public health and research organizations.

“(We) will use this first place prize to bring our low-cost cancer screening technology to the women who need it most,” said Ariel Beery, CEO of Mobile OCT, part of the winning team. According to the company’s website, the smartphone tool combines “a lens and a set of algorithms that enable advanced screening for cancer.”

Women on both sides of the border will be eligible to participate in the study’s different phases. Scripps Health will work with patients in San Diego, and Fronteras United Pro Salud, a nonprofit in Tijuana that focuses on reproductive health, will work with those in Mexico.

Public health officials say screening for cervical cancer is critical, because the disease is the leading cause of cancer death among women with limited resources.

While there’s already a test — known as a Pap smear — for this cancer, the World Health Organization estimates that 85 percent of the world’s women don’t have access to it.

The winning team’s participants were Mobil OCT, maker of the cancer diagnostic tool; International Community Foundation, which is a San Diego-based health and education nonprofit; Scripps Health; and Fronteras United Pro Salud.